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Rating: 
Summary: Informative but...
Review: I bought this book after reading through Effective C++ and More Effective C++ by Scott Meyers following the suggested reading by the author. I think that I should have read this book before purchasing the Effective C++ books. Basically it touches some fundamental issues, but due to the fact that it is slightly old, some topics such as templates are not covered very well. Meyers also gives a thorough overview of smart pointers, member function templates etc. My recommendation is that if you really want to start improving your C++ skills, forget about this book, read Scott Meyers' books and pick up Design Patterns by Erich Gamma and others.
Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderful Surprise
Review: I've understood the syntax of C++ and the basic ideas of OO for some time now, but I have not used these tools professionally because OO design is so hard, and I have little experience. I have often wished I had a book that would help me evaluate an OO design, and determine what its weaknesses were. This is that book.I especially like the format; the author presents an OO class and then step by step tears it down and shows you what's broken about it. For each problem and its corresponding solution, the author presents a rule of thumb that can help you avoid similar design mistakes in the future. Some of the material is specific to C++, but a lot of it is applicable to any OO language.
Rating:
Summary: Cargill's classic book on quality C++
Review: It is unfair to judge this book from the perspective of the "average" C++ programmer. Tom goes at least three steps further to treat programmers/readers as intelligent beings of the same species who already have the fundamental programming language "mechanics" skills. The reviewer who spewed forth about "coding style" really doesn't "get it." The whole issue of "where you put your braces" and naming conventions isn't what Tom or Tom's book is about. He already assumes that if you're programming C++ you have some idea of when you're going to press enter on the keyboard. (To make whitespace, in case you were wondering...) The inferior thinking that confounds the world of programming is that C++ is an easy language to master. Very few programmers have much hope of aspiring to learn even 80% of the language and use it effectively. Thinking otherwise is like saying that everyone who wants to run a foot race can be Jessie Owens. Tom starts by treating readers as programming peers. That alone is an incredible benefit anytime programming is being done. Prima donas and those guys who always seem too busy to provide their "public interface" are the ones to avoid in learning anything of use regarding C++. I pick up Tom's book every couple of months and browse it. His noted "brevity" is like a good RPG that gives subtle hints that incite thinking for yourself without following what many other books do by drawing a roadmap to one solution that worked for this one situation but may never again apply to anything useful. In my opinion, Tom's "lessons" are appropriately concise. If you haven't read Tom's book, buy it, read it...if you're serious about your C++ skills. There is a *good* reason why Scott Meyers recommends Tom's book. It is something of a unique and interesting perspective on C++, which is really all that any of us can hope to give back to the language. The book is an interesting, insightful perspective that has pragmatic commentary that will help you be a better C++ programmer. At the last (ever?) C++ World conference in December of 1999, a discussion of which books to read evolved out of some other spew. Cargill's book came up as necessary reading, as it always seems to, for the simple fact that it comes from a respected industry professional with an uncany ability to boil out the meat of the topic without overcooking the stew. C++ is, at least, also an art form. Tom's ability with the art of C++ is inspiring. Scott Meyers is another artist. So is Angelika Langer and Herb Sutter, and Andy Koenig, Stan Lippman, Doug Lea and Erich Gamma and Jim Copelien and numerous others. But, for each of them, there are 10,000 very so-so programmers out there spewing forth complete nonsense. Help de-nonsense your world with Tom's book. One person indicated that it is somewhat stale. It is really like fine wine. It just gets better with age.
Rating:
Summary: Cargill's classic book on quality C++
Review: It is unfair to judge this book from the perspective of the "average" C++ programmer. Tom goes at least three steps further to treat programmers/readers as intelligent beings of the same species who already have the fundamental programming language "mechanics" skills. The reviewer who spewed forth about "coding style" really doesn't "get it." The whole issue of "where you put your braces" and naming conventions isn't what Tom or Tom's book is about. He already assumes that if you're programming C++ you have some idea of when you're going to press enter on the keyboard. (To make whitespace, in case you were wondering...) The inferior thinking that confounds the world of programming is that C++ is an easy language to master. Very few programmers have much hope of aspiring to learn even 80% of the language and use it effectively. Thinking otherwise is like saying that everyone who wants to run a foot race can be Jessie Owens. Tom starts by treating readers as programming peers. That alone is an incredible benefit anytime programming is being done. Prima donas and those guys who always seem too busy to provide their "public interface" are the ones to avoid in learning anything of use regarding C++. I pick up Tom's book every couple of months and browse it. His noted "brevity" is like a good RPG that gives subtle hints that incite thinking for yourself without following what many other books do by drawing a roadmap to one solution that worked for this one situation but may never again apply to anything useful. In my opinion, Tom's "lessons" are appropriately concise. If you haven't read Tom's book, buy it, read it...if you're serious about your C++ skills. There is a *good* reason why Scott Meyers recommends Tom's book. It is something of a unique and interesting perspective on C++, which is really all that any of us can hope to give back to the language. The book is an interesting, insightful perspective that has pragmatic commentary that will help you be a better C++ programmer. At the last (ever?) C++ World conference in December of 1999, a discussion of which books to read evolved out of some other spew. Cargill's book came up as necessary reading, as it always seems to, for the simple fact that it comes from a respected industry professional with an uncany ability to boil out the meat of the topic without overcooking the stew. C++ is, at least, also an art form. Tom's ability with the art of C++ is inspiring. Scott Meyers is another artist. So is Angelika Langer and Herb Sutter, and Andy Koenig, Stan Lippman, Doug Lea and Erich Gamma and Jim Copelien and numerous others. But, for each of them, there are 10,000 very so-so programmers out there spewing forth complete nonsense. Help de-nonsense your world with Tom's book. One person indicated that it is somewhat stale. It is really like fine wine. It just gets better with age.
Rating:
Summary: Cargill's classic book on quality C++
Review: It is unfair to judge this book from the perspective of the "average" C++ programmer. Tom goes at least three steps further to treat programmers/readers as intelligent beings of the same species who already have the fundamental programming language "mechanics" skills. The reviewer who spewed forth about "coding style" really doesn't "get it." The whole issue of "where you put your braces" and naming conventions isn't what Tom or Tom's book is about. He already assumes that if you're programming C++ you have some idea of when you're going to press enter on the keyboard. (To make whitespace, in case you were wondering...) The inferior thinking that confounds the world of programming is that C++ is an easy language to master. Very few programmers have much hope of aspiring to learn even 80% of the language and use it effectively. Thinking otherwise is like saying that everyone who wants to run a foot race can be Jessie Owens. Tom starts by treating readers as programming peers. That alone is an incredible benefit anytime programming is being done. Prima donas and those guys who always seem too busy to provide their "public interface" are the ones to avoid in learning anything of use regarding C++. I pick up Tom's book every couple of months and browse it. His noted "brevity" is like a good RPG that gives subtle hints that incite thinking for yourself without following what many other books do by drawing a roadmap to one solution that worked for this one situation but may never again apply to anything useful. In my opinion, Tom's "lessons" are appropriately concise. If you haven't read Tom's book, buy it, read it...if you're serious about your C++ skills. There is a *good* reason why Scott Meyers recommends Tom's book. It is something of a unique and interesting perspective on C++, which is really all that any of us can hope to give back to the language. The book is an interesting, insightful perspective that has pragmatic commentary that will help you be a better C++ programmer. At the last (ever?) C++ World conference in December of 1999, a discussion of which books to read evolved out of some other spew. Cargill's book came up as necessary reading, as it always seems to, for the simple fact that it comes from a respected industry professional with an uncany ability to boil out the meat of the topic without overcooking the stew. C++ is, at least, also an art form. Tom's ability with the art of C++ is inspiring. Scott Meyers is another artist. So is Angelika Langer and Herb Sutter, and Andy Koenig, Stan Lippman, Doug Lea and Erich Gamma and Jim Copelien and numerous others. But, for each of them, there are 10,000 very so-so programmers out there spewing forth complete nonsense. Help de-nonsense your world with Tom's book. One person indicated that it is somewhat stale. It is really like fine wine. It just gets better with age.
Rating: 
Summary: Introduction to C++ class design
Review: This book does not cover programming style in the traditional usage of the term. There is no discussion of general programming practice, naming conventions, documentation, commenting, formatting, and layout. The best target audience for this book is newcomers to C++ having difficulty with class design. Chapters on abstraction, consistency, inheritance, virtual functions, operator overloading, wrappers, and multiple inheritance provide solid guidance. The author repeats principals in multiple chapters such as "Look for simple abstractions", "Reduce coupling - minimize interactions between classes", and "Usually, the destructor in a public base class should be virtual". Substantial amounts of code listings appear in the book (approximately 20% of the pages).
Rating: 
Summary: valuable source for lower level architectural decisions
Review: This isn't just a book for C++ programmers, it deals with architectural decisions in object-oriented programs whose example base uses C++ programs. There is much valuable information here for object developers of any hat.
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